At bottling plants, for example, bottles are conveyed by means of a conveyor which typically comprises conveyor belts made of stainless steel, iron or plastic chains having side railings which hold the bottles on the conveyor. Conventional bottling lines consist of a large quantity of these types of chains which make up the belts of the conveyors.
The surface of the chains must be lubricated for bottles being transported on the conveyor to remain in position. Such lubrication, therefore, prevents the bottles from falling off the conveyor when, for instance, a machine failure or temporary halt of the conveyor causes the bottles to stop. This is true because lubrication allows for the chains of the conveyor belt to proceed in motion (in a friction-free manner) without causing the motionless bottles to fall.
In the absence of appropriate lubrication, however, the chains of the conveyor belts can break or be cut, causing bottles to fall, loose their contents and/or break. Moreover, due to stress, motor reducers of the conveyors would break down or burn out their coils. Thus, improperly lubricated conveyors can cause in a production standstill, resulting in important economic losses in the bottling industry.
Conventional processes for lubricating bottling lines are generally performed as follows:
The equipment, with lubricant composition supply, delivers the lubricant through pipes attached to a lateral of the conveyor. From the pipes, the composition is delivered to collectors, which consist of a 3/4 bar and injection holders. The injectors have holes of sizes that vary from 0.30 to 0.50 mm, wherein one injector is located at the center of each conveyor belt allowing for the homogeneous distribution of lubricant composition throughout the conveyor.
Such conventional processes, however, exhibit several problems and disadvantages. This is true because injection holes often are easily clogged. Further, much of the lubricant composition, like 70%, falls to the floor before being distributed by the bottles on the conveyors. Thus, only 30% of the lubricant composition is used, with the remainder being wasted and creating environmentally unfriendly conditions. Still further, conventional processes contain jets that spray a mist of the lubricant composition that often contaminates the product being bottled.
It is of increasing interest to produce a dispensing device to apply or dispense a lubricant composition, in the absence of the above-described problems. The present invention, therefore, is directed to a lubricant composition dispensing device that comprises a hollow body, which houses in the interior thereof a collecting pipe exhibiting a plurality of transverse perforations, and an absorbing felt cloth preferably consisting of high density felt, which partially protrudes from said hollow body through a bottom opening thereof.